The following relates generally to wireless communication, and more specifically to discontinuous downstream transmissions in a femtocell. Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
Generally, a wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple mobile terminals. Base stations may communicate with mobile terminals on downstream and upstream links. Each base station has a coverage range, which may be referred to as the coverage area of the cell. In cellular deployments, the macrocell is used to describe a cell serving a wide region such as rural, suburban, and urban areas. A “femtocell” is a smaller cell, typically deployed for use in a home, small business, building, or other limited region. It often is connected to a service provider's network via a broadband connection. In 3GPP terms, femtocells may be referred to as Home Node Bs (HNB) for UMTS (WCDMA, or High Speed Packet Access (HSPA)) and Home eNode Bs (HeNB) for LTE.
Femtocell transmissions may cause intercellular interference to other femtocells or macrocells deployed in the same frequency. This interference may degrade the capacity and user perceived performance in those cells. Intercellular interference may be caused when a femtocell continuously transmits in-band signals to facilitate discovery of the femtocell by user equipment (UEs). However, not all of the continuous in-band transmissions may be necessary. Transmitting excessive in band signals may adversely impact power consumption at an HNB/HeNB and cause interference at neighboring cells.